News

Alarming Figures Living In Poverty, Says New Report

Friday August 16 2013

FAMILIES are on a 'financial cliff edge' and one in four of the town's children live in poverty, according to a new report.

It was revealed as part of a draft three-year strategy put together by the Barnsley Anti-Poverty Board to tackle the growing problem of poverty in the borough.

Poverty is defined in the report as a lack of income or resources which prevent people from taking part in the society they're living in.

This often results in those people experiencing multiple disadvantages through unemployment, low income, poor housing, inadequate health care and barriers to lifelong learning, culture, sport and recreation.

The strategy has been put together as a matter of urgency due to the impact the recession, government austerity measures and welfare reforms are having on households.

Such predictions include an increase in child poverty which the Institute for Fiscal Studies believes will result in one in four children being in relative poverty by 2020.

"That figure is already a reality for Barnsley, according to government child poverty figures, with 24.9 per cent of our children living in relative poverty in 2010," writes Frances Foster, chairman of the Barnsley Anti-Poverty Board.

According to the report, there are 10,655 under-16s living in households reliant upon out-of-work benefits.

It says beyond the 25 per cent of children already classed as living in poverty, a further 21 per cent of Barnsley families are living on a 'financial cliff edge'.

They're described as being 'an unexpectedly large fuel bill or broken fridge away from being in poverty' due to their lack of financial resilience.

Those most affected often include families with children, lone parents, people with a disability, certain ethnic minorities and workless families/households.

It shows the Dearne and Thurnscoe have the highest rates of worklessness in Barnsley, figures based on out-of-work benefit claimant rates.

Athersley has the second highest rates with Dodworth, Penistone West and Penistone East having the lowest.

The board plans to address poverty issues by promoting employment, fostering independence by supporting residents to manage their income more effectively and protecting the vulnerable.

yeah yeah i keep seeing this article, so when is something going to be done, most of the money problems that people are struggling face are caused by the benefits system itself in my experience botched up payments, no payments for wks or even months on end and when you do get things sorted it isn't long before your back to square 1 and the cost of the calls to these department are ridiculous if you don't have a land-line.... LETS SEE SOME RESULTS NOT JUST CHATTER for a change.

Since when did we not know this? Barnsley has always been poor. It has always done poorly academically. The housing stock is rubbish as are the roads, investment, schools and so on.
The town centre is all pubs and the area is littered with awful social housing estates. New houses are too small. The council are useless in every way and this will not change until we get shut of the current bunch. Planning is terrible both for housing and infrastructure. Public transport is shocking as well.
As for the people well in some areas, as named above, they are 3rd generation benefit claimants and that will not change until the benefits system changes.

The mobile phone is the best ever educational tool that anyone could ever have in front of them .
Its just a pity that most of the tools who use them think they only do 3 things.
Ring ...text....facebook

Sick of seeing this and hearing people going on about being poor,but yet you find most of these people out every weekend with a brand new outfit,Iphone 5's and every single brand new electrical items such as Ipads,laptops,Ipods,Sky television in every room of their council house 10ft trampoline and all best garden furniture.But yet they claim to be 'skint' one way to solve it no more than 2 kids benefit claiming families and give them a food voucher what doesn't allow them to buy fags or booze.

It's not just people on benefits that are struggling I work 150 hour pm and that's still hard to get by I have full rent full tax a partner who's pregnant and not entitled to anything due to my earnings government is messed up make people on JSA take a drug test see how many people stop receiving it. And yes I agree food vouchers for kids.

hey not all us people with more than 2 kids are scroungers!! my husband works pretty dam hard to provide for his family and once the baby is at school I will be working I had these kids its my job to raise them I refuse to put them in some nursery while I earn just enough to coverit. we are not well off by any means but we live within our means we don't go out or spend on things we don't need the kids have what they need not what they want. We don't have fancy holidays or clothes etc proper gets on my nerves that all larger familys are judged as spongers granted I know a lot. I agree that it sucks we would be in a better position financially if he didn't work. again I agree on the food vouchers though. I also dontthink that all council estates are bad ..

Liz you shouldnt take things serious from
this shower of shite.
The tilly lou reminds of a lamp you would put in the toilet.?
Shes obviously been in and out of everybodys house in barnsley taking stock of what everybody owns. and i bet she has no debt whatsoever. no phone on contract no finance whatsoever. making her the ultimate perfect person who is not part of the band that makes this country the shithole it is

This is not aimed at the married, single mothers etc. who rely on the benefit system of the UK. I am directing my comments at the rest of the people. I am from Barnsley and quite proud of the fact that I am a Yorkshireman! At the moment, I live in China where there is no dole money, in fact, nothing...if you've no money you starve...literally! I came to china in 2008 with 200 pounds in my pocket and am surviving... No qualifications no university degree, no nothing! All I'm saying is, being in, or getting in a rut is a terrible thing...sometimes you've just got to take the bull by the horns and do what you got to do! By the way, I was 51 when I set off on my journey